The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness and the Making of a Great Chef

If you are not extreme, then people will take shortcuts because they don't fear you.

Great chefs have three things in common: first, they accept and respect mother nature as a true artist; second, everything they do is an extension of them as a true person; and third, they give you insight into the world they were born into.

I borrowed a quote from Oscar Wilde and put it at the top of the menu: “To get into the best society nowadays one has either to feed people, amuse people, or shock people—that is all.

To know how to eat well, one must first know how to wait.

Lots of famous chefs today don’t look whacked, because they don’t work. They have a healthy glow and a clear complexion. There is blood in their cheeks. They haven’t got burns on their wrists and cuts on their hands.

Apply the cook’s brain and visualize that fried egg on the plate. Do you want it to be burned around the edges? Do you want to see craters on the egg white? Should the yolk look as if you’d need a hammer to break into it? The answer to all three questions should be no. Yet the majority of people still crack an egg and drop it into searingly hot oil or fat and continue to cook it on high heat. You need to insert earplugs to reduce the horrific volume of the sizzle. And the result, once served up in a pool of oil, is an inedible destruction of that great ingredient—the egg. Maybe that’s how you like it, in which case carry on serving your disgusting food.

Escoffier, whose philosophy was “Good food is the basis of true happiness.

Mother Nature is the true artist and our job as cooks is to allow her to shine.

If you can visualize the food on the plate before you start cooking, it means, inevitably, that you can be more precise with portions: how often have you prepared a roast dinner intended for six but ended up creating enough food for a dozen? Picture it on the plate first, and you’ll not only get a better meal but save on waste as well—though do take into consideration the people who’ll want second helpings.

Oh, that’s lovely wrist action you’ve got there. Fancy coming into the larder with me and earning yourself five woodbines?

so that there would a lot of carving in the room.

When the food was finished, he’d produce a bottle of that ghastly herbal alcoholic drink Fernet-Branca.

TO PREPARE THE SAUCE VIERGE: 1. Heat the oil gently in a small pan, and then add the lemon juice. Remove from the heat. 2. Add the coriander and basil and let it infuse the warm oil for a few minutes. 3. Add the diced tomato and serve immediately.

The sauce vierge: cup olive oil 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 teaspoon coriander seeds, crushed 8 basil leaves, cut into fine julienne strips 2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced